


Embarrassed

by OneFail_AtATime



Series: Arya x Gendry Week 2018 [5]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Children, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Married Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 22:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17927408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneFail_AtATime/pseuds/OneFail_AtATime
Summary: The dawn of teenage romance gives Arya the opportunity to bond with her eldest daughter and reflect on her own relationship with her husband.





	Embarrassed

**Author's Note:**

> This would be able to exist in the same universe as my other Gendrya Week fics, though certainly not in order. 
> 
> In this universe, Arya and Gendry rule as Lord and Lady of the Stormlands where Arya trains anyone and everyone who is willing to learn how to fight, including her own children. Sansa rules as Queen in the North and maintains a close relationship with her sister, whose children travel to and from the North to spend time with their aunt.

_I’m stupid._

 

_Boys are stupid._

 

_Where’s my sword?_

 

The same three thoughts cycled back through her mind as she stormed from the armory, sword in hand, and darted through the courtyard with one goal in mind. She needs to distract herself. She needed to train.

_By the gods, why did I say something so stupid?_

Lya Baratheon Stark made good time in her effort to sneak out of the castle and down to the sandpit. It was that hollow on the edge of the coast where she found peace whenever she looked to escape the chaos of a lord’s visit, just as her father escaped to the forge and her mother escaped to oversee the training sessions that were always open to anyone who wanted to learn. And that particularly evening, it was a lord’s visit that had gotten her into the embarrassing and stressful situation in the first place.

She took to training. Her sole focus was on the defensive positions that she swore to herself she would perfect after her last training session with her mother and brother. While she had managed to bring Ned to yield despite his brute strength, her mother had easily unseated her. The practice moves from Master Iker were numerous and so it gave her the perfect opportunity to forget her social embarrassment from the start of the evening and become lost in the bliss of what it felt like to have a sword in hand while her muscles stretched to accommodate each fluid movement.

And because Lya was in such a deep focus in her attempt to block out the universe, when a blade appeared from one side, she was shocked to the core and spun to parry the force just before she dove in the opposite direction. An approving and familiar smirk caught her attention and Lya turned to see her mother. Arya Stark stood in her familiar leathers and jerkin with her sword drawn and balanced in her grip.

“You’re getting better, Ly. I did sneak up on you but you handled the surprise attack well.”

Lya raised a brow at her mother. “Yet, had someone truly wanted to harm me then they wouldn’t have attacked from the side while sneaking up from behind. A cutthroat would have just put their sword through my back.”

Her mother nodded, stormy eyes bright with approval. “Glad to see you’ve been listening to me.” She smiled teasingly and spun her blade in her hand. “Do you want to continue with your practice? Or do you want to talk about what’s on your mind?”

Lya sighed heavily. _Of course_ her mother would know that something was bothering her. The only true surprise was that her mother, the former _assassin_ , didn’t already know the reason behind why her eldest daughter had been driven to the sandy hollow to train. Without waiting for a response, Arya beckoned for her daughter to follow her to the low wall surrounding two sides of the training pit. The pit itself had been an anniversary gift to her mother from her father on their first anniversary in Storm’s End. Lya herself had trained there with her siblings and the younger children from surrounding villages.

“Warning: it’s _so_ embarrassing, Mum.”

“Love, embarrassing is your father trying to hold a casual conversation _with anyone_. I think we both remember your Uncle Jon’s last tourney.” Lya snickered despite herself and Arya nudged her daughter with her shoulder. “So come on, tell me what happened and we’ll sneak sweetbread from the kitchens after.”

Her daughter groaned and fell back over the low edge of the wall, dangling by her knees as she stared out into the upturned world around her. “I am so stupid, Mum. Girls my age know how to bat their eyelashes and smile at lords, but me? What do I do? I say something that should be considered the _worst_ compliment since before the conquest. Truly, Mum. It was practically an insult.” She sighed and rolled so that she was laying on the grassy area surrounding the wall. Lya continued speaking, her voice now a low murmur as she considered what she was about to say. “Maybe I should go North, Mum, with Aunt Sansa. I _know_ she’s taking Ned. Joanna told me. Maybe the Stormlands aren’t where I’m supposed to be.”

Arya Stark was silent, her lips pressed together tightly as she considered her daughter’s request. There was an underlying cause to Lyanna’s question. She just had to work it out of her. Her eldest daughter had inherited a stubborn inability to communicate her feelings properly, though everyone who knew the family would be hard pressed to determine which parent she had inherited it from. “You are always welcome to visit your aunt. It’s your right as one of her heirs … but this is Ned’s eighteenth year. He’ll spend the entire year in the North.”

“ _Exactly,_ ” exhaled Lya with exasperation. “He’s going to learn hwo to do all the courtly things that you and Papa are so bad at. _No offense._ ” Her daughter added quickly as she sat up to meet Arya’s gaze. “It’s just- Aunt Sansa knows what to say … to _lords_. It’s easy for her.”

“It always has been.” Arya answered honestly. “And I suppose the fault lies with me and your father.”

“What do you mean?” Her daughter’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Papa tells your story all the time. We all have it practically memorized at this point. He went North to fight the dead and found you, after he spent years thinking you were dead. Together, you helped to end the Long Night, defeat the Mad Queen, and make the North independent. Is there a person alive in the North or Stormlands who _hasn’t_ heard your disgusting love story?”

“You’ve heard the story but you have no idea how unbelievable stupid both me and your father were back before any of that happened.”

This clearly sparked Lyanna’s interest as she had sat up quickly in order to scramble back to side beside her mother. “Go on.”

Arya turned so that she was sitting against the lower wall in order to lean back against it. She inhaled deeply as if recalling memories with each extension of her breath. “before any of this happened, before your father and I helped Aunt Sansa claim the North as her own, before the Siege of King’s Landing, and even before the Long Night, I was just a skinny little girl posing as a boy and headed for the Night’s Watch.” Lya’s interest grew. Her parents’ life before the war was something that they didn’t speak of. It had been a dark time for them both. She remained silent and gave her mother the time she needed to continue. “You all know your father and I met as children and there are some things that we still don’t discuss … but you _should_ know that it was very difficult to be a girl, almost a young woman, and to be stuck traveling with your father.”

Lya felt her brow furrow together. “Was he rude?”

Arya let out a sharp bark of laughter. “No, he would _brood_. And then he’d want to tease me. We’d get mad at one another and I would throw something at him, or punch him, and he’d forget his anger only to laugh at me, which would only made me _even more_ angry at him than I had been in the first place.”

“Mum, that’s what you are like on any given day.”

“Yes, only now we know that we love each other.” Arya smiled, her stormy gray gaze growing distant as a flood of memories rushed through her. “But the problem I had as a young girl was that I didn’t know his teasing and brooding meant that he _cared_. I just thought he was stupid and stubborn.”

“But he _is_ stupid and stubborn.”

“All men are.” Arya confided in her daughter with a teasing smile. “But what I’m trying to explain is that your father and I aren’t the only ones terrible at communicating sometimes, we’re not those couples who write poetry and declare their love for one another and Ly, that’s okay because it works for us.”

Lya was silent as she stared down at her feet, which were only a slightly smaller variation of the woman sitting next to her. Unlike her brother and younger siblings, she had been the one to inherit her mother’s short stature. “I _want_ a love like you and Papa though. Who cares about poetry? I just … I don’t want to make a fool of myself when I try to talk to someone.”

“You’ve just turned three and ten, love. But I promise you, it won’t be this awkward forever. The more you talk to them, the easier the talking becomes.” Arya promised as she watched her daughter. Their smiles grew together. “Ly … are you going to tell me what you said?”

Her daughter stood and brushed the sand from her clothes. “Maybe.” She answered shortly. Lya held her hand out to her mother. “Come on, Mum. You promised me sweetbread.”

…                 …                 …

The following evening, Arya found herself surrounded by the same lords and ladies who had attended their dinner the night before. Her eldest child stood surrounded by friends as they all laughed and teased one another during their last true evening together. In a few days’ time, the Stormlanders would return to their estates and after that, Ned would leave for the North to spend a year in Winterfell. And though her son was certainly at the center of everyone else’s attention, it was Lyanna who Arya had her eyes on. Her eldest daughter had been weaving amongst the crowds all evening as if searching for someone in particular.

It was when her daughter laughed at something a little lordling said and have given him a playful shove that she knew Lya was feeling better than the night before. The sudden smile caught Gendry’s attention and her husband gave her a playful shove of his own.

“What is it that you’re smiling about, eh _wife_?” He teased, ocean eyes shining brightly at the happiness of seeing all their children enjoying themselves at the entertainment.

“Nothing, _lord husband_.” Arya teased in return, though she was quick to look back at her daughter, something Gendry picked up on. He froze.

“Is she- are they-“, he stammered as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

“Now Gendry…” murmured Arya calmly as she placed a soothing hand on his arm.

“But he’s two years older than her!!” He glared in the direction of his daughter and her lordling friend, as if ready to literally drag them away from one another.

“Put those muscles away, Lord Baratheon. Remember whose daughter she is. Any funny business and she’ll cut him balls to brains.”

Gendry frowned. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to throttle him.”

“They’re just as awkward as we were at that age.” Arya laughed. “If not more so.”

This piqued Gendry’s interest. Arya’s smiled pulled him in. “What do you mean?” He murmured, his gaze turning away from where Lya had returned to her group of female friends in order to stare at his wife. Arya stood on her tiptoes in order to whisper in Gendry’s ear, watching as his eyes grew wide and a booming laugh escaped his lips. He turned back to his wife with a smirk. “She’s still not as bad as you were.”

Arya glared in return and delivered a swift punch to his abdomen. “Remember,” the Lady Baratheon said as she turned away and lifted her gaze back to the hall as if oblivious of the sharp pain she had caused. “Me hitting you is how I show affection.” 

**Author's Note:**

> These had been posted on Tumblr ages ago and we can face it, every week is Gendrya week. I am absolutely in love with the idea of Arya as a mother because I wholeheartedly believe that she would be such a great one. And of course, she and Gendry would have the kind of relationship that would annoy all their children with their constant public displays of affection. 
> 
> As always, please let me know what you think. When writing this over the summer, I wanted to explore Arya's potential as mother and I may still come back to this to reedit / lengthen because I am so fond of that role for her.


End file.
